Heir to the Night
by Talon Marlow
Summary: When Robin is kidnapped in the line of duty, Batman questions his own judgement as a mentor and qualifications as a father. Can the Dark Knight rescue the Boy Wonder before his heir is lost forever? Rated PG for stylized violence.


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Ah… the necessary evils of disclaimers and author's notes. 

Here we go… No, I don't own Batman, his gang of juvenile delinquent partners, or Gotham City. I do, however, own Alfred. Relax, DC and Warner Brothers-- I'm only kidding. 

My dearest readers, this is my very first work on Fanfiction.net, and your reviews/constructive criticism would therefore be much appreciated. You may request stories for me to write, and I will consider your suggestions. In the meantime, have fun with this story. If the copyright guys show up, grab the keg and run like the wind.

"Hurry up, Tony! We got the kid!" Lurking within one of Gotham City's many dark alleyways, two hooded men awaited the arrival of a third, struggling to keep hold on a writhing burlap sack. The third gangster, Tony, nodded in approval as he approached his comrades in crime. Muffled cries emitted from the bundle as Tony gave it a sharp kick. 

"Shutup, brat!" he demanded in a gruff tone.

"You got the tranq or what?" grunted the gangster that had first addressed Tony. He was known as Bones, and had a considerable mass of muscle in his bulging forearms, but even he was growing tired from the terrific struggle that whatever was trapped within the sack was giving. 

"Yeah, I gots what we need," Tony grinned. "The boss should be pleased, eh? Lenny, open the bag-- whoa, open it _carefully_, you idiot!" As soon as Lenny had unleashed the drawstring that sealed the sack, a green-gloved fist erupted from within, catching the lanky gangster's nose in a vicious uppercut. "_Idiot!" _Tony repeated as Lenny recoiled, moaning and holding his bleeding nose. Bones, in the meantime, had extracted a writhing boy, no more than twelve years old, from the battered sack. He was dressed in an unusual outfit of red, green and gold, topped off by a flowing black cape. His blue eyes, indignant with anger and wide with fear, were surrounded by a mask. Tony drew a deadly looking syringe from the pocket of his trench coat.

"Hurry, Tony!" Bones insisted angrily as the boy caught him in the shin with a harsh kick of his booted foot. 

"Sorry, bird-boy," Tony apologized mockingly as he jabbed the needle into the youth's forearm. "But it's past your bedtime. Nighty-night!" The three outlaws laughed as the boy went limp in Bones' crushing grip, his struggles temporarily at an end. 

A hail of gunfire hammered the roof of the Gotham City Plaza, fruitless in its efforts to hit the intended target. That target, a masculine figure so dark that when still it was mistaken for the night itself, dodged the onslaught with the skillful mastery of one that was used to defending himself against the toughest slum that Gotham had to offer. "Give it up, Bats!" the ragged voice of the gunman taunted. Blinded by his over-confidence in his own abilities-- which were limited to belching, stealing, and firing a machine gun--, the gunman scanned the level below him where his fire had been aimed, searching for his target, the Batman. "Hey, where'd he go?" the outlaw asked himself aloud in surprise as his eyes scanned the empty level. 

"Not far," an ominous voice answered from directly behind him. As soon as he whipped around, a fist, shrouded in midnight-black leather, knocked any further conscious thought from the gunman with an excruciating punch. The gangster, once he came to later, restrained within the backseat of a cop car, realized a valuable fact of life for criminals of Gotham City: when pursuing the Dark Knight, the hunter will always eventually become the hunted.

_It doesn't matter, though,_ the outlaw thought silently, a wicked grin lighting his bedraggled face. He had served his purpose, and the boss would break him out of the pen soon enough, he assumed. _The **real** fun hasn't even begun yet, Bats. You don't know what you have coming. _

Having apprehended the bank robbers and considering crime to be bayed for the night, Batman drove toward the meeting point that he had assigned to his younger partner, Robin. He had reluctantly allowed the boy wonder to pursue half of the robbers, as the gang of them had split up and gone in two different directions. The Batmobile peeled through the streets of Gotham, as sleek and as powerful as its driver. Upon reaching the appointed rendezvous, Batman shifted gears and pulled the clutch, slowing to a halt. 

Robin was nowhere in sight.

_He's just a little late_, the Dark Knight assured himself silently, ignoring the nagging anxieties that whispered in the back of his mind. He exited his vehicle and went to investigate the nondescript alleyway. The glint of moonlight on glass caught his eye, and he leaned over to pluck a syringe from the littered ground. It was busted, as if it had been tossed upon the cement ground after usage. Grimacing, Batman continued to scour the area for anything unusual. The sound of rushing air suddenly caught his attention, and he turned just in time to see a hooded figure darting away from the Batmobile, a knife glinting in one hand. The outlaw had slashed the front tire, and it was hissing as it slowly deflated. 

A getaway car rounded the corner and the gangster lunged in as one of the passengers swung the door open for him. "So long, Bats!" he jeered as the car screeched down the road and out of sight. Batman looked over the Batmobile, unable to pursue the criminal until he changed tires. He began to go for a spare when he noticed a piece of paper that had been wedged under the windshield wiper. It read, in letters cutout from newspapers and magazines, "We have the boy. If you want him back, show up at the abandoned factory by Gotham Bay at midnight. COME ALONE."

As consciousness slowly found Robin, brief confusion plagued his young mind. Where was he? And why wasn't he at home, Wayne Manor, safe and warm in his bed? The events of the night began to come to him in a rush of flashing memories; he and Batman, splitting up to each pursue the two groups of bank robbers… suddenly finding himself surrounded by thugs… being thrown in a sack and injected with something; that was his last memory. _It must have been a tranquilizer,_ he realized as he groggily surveyed his surroundings. 

He was in a dark, damp holding cell, and his wrists were shackled to the wall. He wrestled against the metal binds, pulling and tugging in a fruitless struggle for freedom. At last, panting and crestfallen, he sank back against the wall that held him captive. What a mess he had gotten himself into this time! _Bruce will never let me out of his sight again,_ he conceded in glum silence. _That is, if I live._

The chamber door suddenly swung open, jarring the junior crimefighter out of his thoughts. As three thugs entered and approached him, he braced himself, giving them his most menacing glare. They were far from intimidated, however-- in fact, they found this quite hilarious. "We're shakin' now, little boy!" laughed one, a tall, lanky man who didn't look as if he had been blessed in the intelligence department. His comrade, a tall, bulging mass of a man, joined him in obnoxious laughter. 

The third abruptly quelled his own amusement and reverted to an all-business attitude. "Unchain him, Lenny," he ordered. Robin recognized his gravelly voice-- these were the thugs from last night: Tony, Bones and Lenny. He remembered Tony saying that the boss should be pleased about Robin's capture. _I wonder who the boss is, _the boy thought as he glanced over the criminals. 

Lenny stepped forward and pushed a key into the lock on the shackles. As soon as Robin heard the _click_ of the lock release, he heaved his arms forward to push the binds off and was on his feet faster than any of the thugs could react. "Hey, watch it!" Bones warned in his booming voice as Robin leaped and executed a perfect somersault over Tony's head. Lenny snatched at Robin's cape and dragged him backward, drawing a penknife from his pocket. Robin jerked a chain up from the floor and whipped it viciously over his head, snapping it around to slap both Lenny and Tony off of their feet. 

Bones had already moved to block the door, and his wide mass loomed threateningly over the small prisoner. Any other boy would have recoiled and surrendered at the horrible scowl that Bones wore on his dark, twisted face. 

But not the Boy Wonder.

Fearless and daring, Robin spun in a brutal roundhouse kick that caught Bones right in between the legs. Shouting various profanities, the criminal doubled over in pain, his voice oddly higher in pitch than before. Wasting no time, Robin zipped around him and out the cell door. The twelve year old was quite pleased with himself for outsmarting the three thugs, and therefore brief arrogance caused him to drop his guard for the moment. It proved to be a mistake, because as he raced down one hall and turned a corner at rapid speed, he smacked right into a very familiar, very horrifying figure. 

"Leaving the party so soon?!" the individual's high, jovial voice asked incredulously. His white face, painted in the likeness of a demented clown, twisted into an evil grin. He snatched Robin up by the scruff of his neck, lifting the boy to meet his own demonic gaze. "You simply _can't_ go; the guest of honor hasn't even arrived yet!" 

The Boy Wonder stared back, finally discovering who the "boss" that Tony had referred to was-- none other than the Joker himself!

Before Robin could react, two thugs-- which seemed in countless supply around here-- pulled a coil of rope tautly around him and gagged his mouth. "Don't worry, Junior," the Joker soothed mockingly, running his hand through the child's mop of dark hair. "Daddy will be here soon enough. Jeff! Jenna!" he addressed the two gangsters that had bound Robin so tightly he could barely move. "Until his father arrives, why don't you two give the Boy Blunder here a preview of coming attractions?" Jeff and Jenna, their faces lit with insanely delighted grins, both began cracking their knuckles. 

Robin wanted to point out that Batman was _not_ his father. He wanted to free himself of the blasted rope that held him fast. He wanted to capture the Joker all by himself, and prove to his mentor that he could be trusted to work alone. He could do none of those things, however, and hung his head in defeat. It wasn't torture or death that he feared; in fact, they were only at the back of his mind. To Robin, Batman was invincible and therefore he knew that the Dark Knight would rescue him. It was this presumed fact that led to another assumption, more overwhelming than any other, which occupied the youth's troubled thoughts:

_Bruce is going to be so disappointed in me…_

"Alfred, how could I have been so stupid?" Batman asked his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, an hour after receiving the kidnappers' note. He was in the Batcave, running an analysis on the droplets of formula that were still in the syringe. "The bank robbers' split was obviously a distraction. I should never have let Dick go after them alone-- he's only twelve!"

"Try not to be too hard on yourself, Master Bruce," Alfred consoled him reasonably. "I'm sure that Master Dick is taking care of himself. You've trained him quite well, you know."

"Obviously not well enough," Batman growled. "He's not ready for this."

"Inexperience is a necessary evil on the road to excellence," Alfred countered wisely. "For we all must start as beginners before we can become masters of our trade."

Batman considered this silently as he looked over the readout that the Batcomputer was producing on the syringe's containments. " Mild tranquilizer," he confirmed aloud, silently thanking God that it wasn't any type of poison. "As I suspected. He should be awake by now." At this realization, he frowned, wondering how his ward might be feeling right now. Was he fearing for his life? Was he angry at Bruce, perhaps considering his capture to be his guardian's fault? Or, worse yet, had he been hurt and tormented by the kidnappers? Or, perhaps… killed?

For four years now, Dick had lived at Wayne Manor, filling the once cold and empty home with warmth and life and the spirit of youth. His presence brightened every room, and the walls echoed with his laughter. He had made Bruce recover the part of himself that he had buried under layers of bitterness and pain, the part that appreciated family and love and the simple things of life. When he took the boy in, Bruce planned on being only a mentor and a guardian. But as time continued on, Dick became less of a charge and more of a son to Bruce than he had ever expected. "I've failed him as a partner," Batman murmured. "And as a father."

"One has only truly failed when they have given up, Sir," Alfred replied evenly. They both glanced toward the computer clock. It was 11:15.

"You're right Alfred," Batman answered as he strode over to the Batmobile. "And I never give up."

"It ain't our fault, Boss!" Lenny complained as the Joker whacked him upside the head. 

"Yeah," Bones echoed deeply. "He's been trained by the Bat. He ain't no ordinary boy."

"Besides," Tony concluded. "You caught him, Boss, and Jeff and Jenna tied him up. No harm done."

"No harm done?" The Joker repeated calmly. "The only reason there has been 'no harm done', you pathetic excuse for a gangster, is that my right-hand operatives alerted me when you allowed him to escape from the holding cell. Otherwise he may have escaped, and then there would have been 'harm done' Tony," he hissed at the outlaw, his white face twisted in the evilest of grins. "There would have been harm done to you." 

Tony, Lenny, and Bones all gulped and glanced to their right. The Joker's top cronies, Jeff and Jenna, both gave them maniacal grins that implied that they wouldn't mind at all to be the ones to do harm to the three hoodlums. "NOW GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" The Joker suddenly bellowed, sending Tony, Lenny and Bones scrambling out the door. The master criminal then turned to his two most trusted employees. Jeff and Jenna, criminal-brother-and-sister-team-extraordinaire. Some said they were nearly as insane and brilliant as the Joker himself; and those that hadn't said so already certainly would have if they had saw the three of them burst into sudden, cackling laughter.

Just as abruptly, all three of them stopped. The Joker grinned widely at a clock on the wall that read 11:20. "The Bat should come looking for its young soon," he mused as Jeff and Jenna exchanged a demented grin. "Why don't you two go down and prepare the welcoming committee?" Without a word, his top fugitives exited the makeshift office that had been set in the derelict factory, heading to the bottom level to round up the rest of his mindless employees.

The Joker then turned to face the cracked, dusty window that looked over Gotham Bay. "Tonight, Batman," he hissed, his malevolent eyes glinting with reflected moonlight and the insanity of his own black heart, "the joke's on you."

The Batmobile prowled through the still of night, roaring by towering buildings and quaint neighborhoods in the blink of an eye. Within its pristine confines, the Batman glanced at the interior clock. 11: 40. He parked a good distance away from the abandoned Gotham Bay fish factory, stealthily but rapidly slinking in shadows toward the ramshackle building. 

No one appeared to be around, but Batman had expected that. Naturally, the kidnappers would be going for the element of surprise. Knowing he was probably being watched, but also knowing that he had to press forward for his young partner's sake, he cautiously entered the building, bracing himself for someone to spring him or something to explode.

Nothing happened.

The silence intensified his suspicion and he drew a batarang from his utility belt, holding it ready should danger arise. The rhythmical tap of his boots against the littered floor echoed throughout the deathly silence, matched by the increasing beat of his heart. Suddenly, a muffled groan and scraping noises signaled movement in the very back room of the bottom level. "Robin?" Batman called as he cautiously approached the room. More grunting sounded, more urgent than before. Batman grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. He stepped back, then lunged forward with a sharp kick, knocking the door clean off of its hinges.

In the middle of the storage room, gagged and bound to a chair with thick knots of rope, sat Batman's junior partner. Robin's eye was blackened and he was covered in bruises; he looked as if someone had thrown him from a cliff. He was struggling so frantically, fighting so aggressively to speak through the gag that stifled his words , that Batman thought the boy surely must be hysterical with pain and fear. "It's okay now, Robin," the Dark Knight attempted to console him as he unknotted the gag and pulled it away.

"NO!" Robin cried frantically once he was finally able to speak clearly. "IT'S A TRAP, BATMAN! It's a tr--" He was cut off by the booming, resounding clank of metal as a hinged layer of reinforced steel fell to cover the busted door. As it was a storage room, there were no windows for means of escape. Batman darted over to the metal barricade and forced it with all his might, but it did no good. They were trapped.

"I see you found your baby bird!" a jeering voice suddenly rang out from an intercom system. "Oh dear, oh dear; my place of business seems to have a bat infestation. I'll have to see it to it that the problem is _exterminated._"

"Joker," Batman hissed as he untied Robin, recognizing the sinister voice right away. Robin nearly fell as he stood up from the chair, one of his battered legs threatening to collapse right under him.

"Very good," the Joker's voice replied sardonically. "I'm impressed. Now let's see if I can leave an impression on you. Within this building, right there on the bottom floor, there are three bombs. In five minutes, they will explode, leveling this rathole and everything in it. Way to go out with a bang, eh, Bats?" Twisted, delighted laughter echoed over the intercom. "I'd love to stick around for the fireworks, but I've got things to do; so many people to kill, so little time, you know. Have fun!" _Click. _ The intercom cut off, and the silence was filled instead with the tell-tale ticking of a timer.

Batman searched the room with his keen eyes, desperately seeking an escape route. There were none in sight; only the barred door. In vain, he rushed over to it and began trying to force it out of place. Robin, however, had his attention elsewhere. Tony, Bones and Lenny had tied him up and put him in this room, laughing and jeering about the bombs that Jeff and Jenna were setting up, and then left him alone. Bound to the chair for an hour, he hadn't had much else to do besides stare at the room around him… and he had noticed something strange about a cabinet on the right wall. 

The room was rather empty, aside from the chair, shelves hooked to the walls, and a few tall, metal cabinets. But one cabinet had mildew on the bottom, and tiny breezes occasionally wafted from beneath it, barely noticeable but curious all the same. Robin pushed all of his weight against the heavy cabinet, bracing his feet against the floor as he desperately tried to budge it aside. It groaned from the strain and barely moved a centimeter out of place. Ever determined, Robin continued to struggle with its solid weight-- when suddenly, it began to glide easily to the side. Surprised at his own strength, Robin opened his eyes, which had been clenched shut in strained effort. 

He saw that the cabinet was moving because Batman had also joined the effort. "I knew it!" Robin exclaimed as a door was revealed in the wall where the cabinet had been standing. "This door must have been here for direct delivery of shipments to the storage room until sorting."

"There's a leak in the bottom," Batman added.

"That's what caused the mildew on the bottom of the cabinet," Robin concluded as Batman kicked the door open. They both fled down the pier that it opened up to and leapt into the bay, paddling frantically for the nearby shore. They had just crawled onto land when the factory exploded in a blaze of magnificent red, orange and gold flames, its old structure quickly collapsing upon itself from the shock. Flaming debris lit up the sky and rained down upon the bay and the empty, surrounding docks, and the air became choked with dust. Batman and Robin fired their grapples and soared away to the safety of the city, breathing in the clean night air. 

The Joker had seen the factory explode. From a perch upon a tall building a few miles away from Gotham Bay, he had laughed insanely with his gang of thugs as the explosion lit the sky in a glorious fireball, certainly killing the Bat and the brat once and for all. Then he had seen the Caped Crusaders, alive and well, soaring away from the bay and into the city.

His laughing had abruptly ended. He now stood in stunned silence, his anger building inside of him, seething to a dangerous boiling point.

"Aw, gee," Lenny mused as he scratched the back of his neck. "I don't see how they got out of that storage room."

Tony and Bones cringed at the demonic display of calm fury that Joker turned upon Lenny. Jeff and Jenna grinned ecstatically, loving every moment of it. "You put him in the storage room, Lenny?" the Joker repeated evenly. "The room with the backdoor for deliveries?"

"I didn't see n-no door, B-Boss," Lenny stammered as the Joker slowly backed him against the edge of the building. 

"Lenny," the Joker whispered, "Consider yourself relieved of any further duties." With that, the crime boss gave the lanky gangster a shove off of the building, sending him plummeting toward the unforgiving cement below.

"Nooooooooo!" Lenny's voice echoed as he fell closer and closer toward his doom-- until a harness suddenly whipped from behind the Joker and his gang, whistling through the night until it snaked around Lenny, catching him in midfall. He whimpered as he dangled above the ground, his life saved by the noble dynamic duo that he had just tried to destroy.

"Brutal system of company release you got there, Joker," a deep voice intoned flatly from behind the Joker and his gang. Tony and Bones hurried to the side of the building to drag Lenny back to the top.

"So you _do_ have a sense of humor!" The Joker exclaimed as he turned around to face Batman and Robin. Batman's lip curled slightly in a sarcastic grin. "Let's see if you find this funny," the Joker suggested with a grin of his own. "Get him, boys!"

Tony, Lenny and Bones advanced on the caped crusaders, swarming to surround them. In the midst of the four thugs, Batman and Robin struck defensive positions, wisely opting to allow their opponents to make the first move. That they did-- Tony, Lenny and Bones striking first, with reckless desperation to do something right for a change, hoping their sudden viciousness would take the heroes down.

Their hope was quickly dimmed along with their consciousness. A round of one-two punches and the thugs were down for the count. "Where do you get these guys, Joker?" Robin jeered. 

"Just the same little thrift shop that Bats picked you up at," the Joker replied, bowling with obnoxious laughter at his own joke. Robin scowled and gave Batman an indignant glance.

"Laugh while you can," Batman retorted calmly. "You won't find much amusement at Arkham Asylum."

"Oh, I'll laugh all the way to the bank!" the Joker informed his rival jovially. "After all, there's still a few I haven't robbed. Tootles!" Batman and Robin begin to chase after the Joker as the villain headed for the roof elevator, but two sharp kicks from behind rendered them flat on the ground. Wasting no time, they sprung to their feet to look into the insane faces of Jeff and Jenna, the Joker's loyal operatives, whom had been hiding, waiting for the right moment to strike. As the four exchanged blows, the Joker boarded the elevator and escaped. 

The dynamic duo's wordless opponents calculated each move they made, considering their rivals' possible defenses before attack, and therefore always having backup retaliations. Jeff aimed a ruthless uppercut at Batman that caught the Dark Knight in the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. He knocked into Jenna, who was standing near the edge of the skyscraper, attempting to lure young Robin to the edge as well. The unexpected impact sent her plummeting over the edge.

"NO! JENNA!" cried Jeff in terror, his mission suddenly forgotten as he raced to the edge, leaping over after his sister. It was the first time Batman and Robin had ever heard either of them speak. The caped crusaders both drew slingshot harnesses from their utility belts, slinging them down through the air to snake around the brother and sister crime team. The turbulent ropes sprung at the sudden weight of the criminals, catapulting them back toward the rooftop. Batman and Robin reached out and grabbed them as they soared upward, dragging them both to safety. Jeff and Jenna both eased out of the yielding coils as Batman and Robin calmly looked on.

"You… saved us," Jenna pointed out tonelessly. The expression on her face was so confused that the statement may as well have been a question.

"Yes," Batman replied evenly. "We did."

"And you saved Lenny, too," Jeff added, his sharp features contorted in the same expression that his sister wore. Jeff and Jenna gave each other a long, meaningful stare, full of mixed emotions. It was as if in that silent connection, they made the decision as of whether to fulfill the Joker's orders, or to repay their debt to their saviors. They both stood, slowly, meeting the masked eyes of the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder with their own haunted gazes. Then, suddenly, as if two beings controlled by the same mind, they sprung over the edge of the building and down a fire escape.

Robin began to lunge forward in pursuit, but a strong hand gripped his shoulder and held him back. "Batman!" he protested. "They're getting away!" 

"Let them go, Robin," Batman ordered his partner firmly as he produced a restraining rope and bound the still-unconscious Tony, Lenny and Bones together. "I think they already learned a lesson tonight." 

It was 3 AM when Dick Grayson finally got to crawl into bed. He grimaced as he noticed the time; it was gonna be a long day at school tomorrow considering the little amount of sleep he was going to get. He was reaching over to flip his bedside lamp off when his door creaked open. "Hi Bruce," he greeted his mentor, sitting back up and leaning against the headboard. 

"Hey, partner," Bruce replied lightly, doing his best to conceal his concern behind an indifferent smile. "Are you feeling better?" He asked as he stepped over to sit on the edge of Dick's bed. His worry over his adopted son's condition was evident in his expression now.

"I'm fine," Dick replied indignantly, as if offended that Bruce would think otherwise. He sat up straighter to prove his point. "Those stupid crooks didn't hurt me much. As a matter of fact, I would have caught him them all, the Joker and all of them thugs, and I would have beat them all up with my eyes closed!"

Bruce's wise blue eyes crinkled with rare amusement. "That is, if you weren't gagged and bound to a chair?"

Dick turned red and sheepishly lowered his face. "Yeah," he agreed lowly. "That kinda hindered things." 

Bruce squeezed Dick's shoulder and stood, starting to walk toward the door. "Get some sleep, pal," he suggested firmly as he strode away.

"Bruce," Dick suddenly called out, unable to stop himself. "Are you disappointed in me?" Bruce halted in mid-step, turning to face his ward, confusion written on his intense face. "You know," Dick continued, more quietly now. "For getting kidnapped. I really didn't mean to," he added, his voice cracking slightly, causing him even more humiliation. 

"People rarely mean to get kidnapped, Dick," Bruce replied sharply. Dick shamefully looked to his knees. "I'm not disappointed in you," Bruce continued softly. "Though I do think you need more training, I'm very proud of you."

"You are?" Dick exclaimed eagerly as he looked back up at his guardian's stern face, his youthful face brightening with joy at this rare praise. Bruce nodded.

"You noticed that spare door in the storage room. We would be dead if you hadn't. Your detective skills are improving. To be honest," Bruce admitted, turning away to avoid Dick's eyes, "I thought that you were disappointed in me."

Dick's nose crinkled in confusion. Since when did his brooding mentor ever seek _his_ approval? "Why would I be?" the boy questioned.

"I sent you out alone even though you weren't ready," Bruce answered guiltily as he gazed out of the window. "I fell for the bank robbers' distraction-- they split to lure you away from me so they could kidnap you. I'm…sorry that I let that happen," Bruce concluded, his voice barely over a whisper now. Dick could see that apologies were a very hard thing for his guardian to make. 

"I never blamed you at all!" Dick assured Bruce as he hopped out of his bed to stand at his mentor's side. "Bruce, I wasn't even scared cuz I knew you'd save me."

Bruce's crestfallen expression wavered a bit. "Really?"

"Really," Dick repeated. "You're Batman; you can do anything." Bruce looked down at his young ward with a genuine smile.

"I wish I could, kid. I really do." Both of them stared out over the manor grounds, father and son both silhouetted in the glow of lamplight. 

"Do you think Jeff and Jenna went back to the Joker?" Dick asked softly, breaking the long silence.

"I don't know," Bruce answered solemnly as he lifted his blue eyes to gaze at the moon. "But I think that they have at least questioned where their loyalties really lie. I don't think this is the last we've seen of Jeff and Jenna."

"It was weird, though, huh?" Dick commented as he crawled back into bed. 

"What was?"

"You know, Jenna being a girl and all."

"Catwoman is a girl," Bruce pointed out.

"But she's different," Dick argued. "Jenna is younger… about 18. Most criminals don't hire teenage girls."

"I don't know about all that," Bruce countered. "Women are making a niche in every aspect of life. Who knows? Gotham City may one day even see a female crime fighter."

Dick's eyes widened incredulously. "Come on, Bruce!" he laughed. "A girl vigilante? Like_ that's_ ever going to happen…"


End file.
